


Roadside Assistance

by Arsenic



Series: Discipline and Punish [44]
Category: Bandom, My Chemical Romance
Genre: Alternate Universe - Prison, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-11-25
Updated: 2007-11-25
Packaged: 2020-03-29 23:01:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19029715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arsenic/pseuds/Arsenic
Summary: Matt has a crush on Jon.





	Roadside Assistance

"I've been talking to the twins about taking down my hours," Gerard admitted.

"You making that much off the stuff at the studio?" Matt asked.

Gerard couldn't help it, he grinned. "Well, they've been asking me to do promo art, too. It's-- I make some pretty decent money. Bob's been teaching Mikey and me to drive, so I've been saving for a car for the three of us, but yeah, I can afford to take a ten hour or so reduction in hours. I need the time to concentrate on the art anyway. I'm sleeping like three hours a night. Bob's threatened to drug me. I told him I'd tell Gabe, because that's _totally_ a parole violation--"

Matt laughed. "I think Gabe might just make himself an accessory to the crime, if we're being honest, here."

"From some of the stories Bob tells me." Gerard nodded.

"Bob tells stories?"

"You'd be amazed," Gerard said, and couldn't help feeling a little special that it was only the very few that Bob really told things to, even now.

"Evidently."

"He wants to know why you won't tell Jon you like him." And okay, most of the time Gerard's non-sequiturs weren't on purpose, but he had also found them to be useful at certain times. They threw people off, opened them to answering more honestly.

Matt said, "Um. What?"

"You know, Jon. The guy you're always helping out when you go to the center. Bob says there's a reason for that, and maybe you should say something. But he also says you're the kind of guy who seems like he has a reason for doing or not doing most things."

Matt put his hands on the desk in front of him. He asked softly. "What else did Bob say?"

"I-- Oh, you're talking about the Mikey thing."

"Yeah, that thing," Matt said, rolling his eyes.

"You ever, um. You ever fixate on something because you know you can't have it? Like, at first it's because that person or thing's really what you want, but after a while it's just because if you look at something else, well, then you might actually have to make a play and get hurt. With the original object of desire, you know it's a lost cause."

Matt sighed. "I take your point, but there are other issues here, trust me."

Gerard said, "Yeah, there kind of really always are."

 

*

_Frank,_

_I'm thinking about getting Mikey a dog. It's still too cold to be outside for long, really, but he loves going to the park and playing with other people's. Tommy looked kind of interested too, when I said something to him and Bob, but Tommy never says anything about apartment-related decisions. It's sort of ridiculous, because he's helping with rent now that he's got the messenger gig. Bob's opinion was mostly of the, "If that's what Mikey wants" variety, which I don't think is going to come as a surprise to either one of us._

_It would have to be a small dog, and something that could be satisfied with two or so walks a day and not destroy things. I was thinking maybe I'd look at the shelters, talk to the people who have been fostering their dogs._

_Operation Matt + Jon = 4eva has begun, but Matt is being resistant. He seems to think there are "issues." I'll get to the bottom of it, no worries. Either that, or I'll prod Bob into having Gabe annoy the living shit out of Matt until he gives in. It's only a matter of time, either way._

_Oh, and yes, I bought Werther's Originals, a whole bag, for Matt to give to him. We're on it._

_Geeway_

 

*

"Please, please, tell Bob to rescind his sic command to Gabe," Matt said. He looked kind of exhausted.

"What do I get out of the deal?" Gerard asked.

"I don't falsify your papers effectively sending you back to prison?"

Gerard wasn't entirely sure what to say to that. He knew Matt was kidding, he did, but that was a pretty horrific thing to threaten a person with, even jokingly. Matt blinked. "Jesus, I don't know what's wrong with me. I would never--"

"I know," Gerard said. Then, "They're that bad? The issues?"

Matt ran a hand over his eyes. "What time is it?"

"Almost ten."

"You eaten breakfast?"

Gerard shook his head. They'd been out of breakfast foods. Mikey and Bob would eat anything under the sun at any time of day, but Gerard liked his milk and cereal, or his cheese and eggs, or, if all else failed, some buttered toast. Matt said, "Let's go grab something, my treat."

Gerard followed Matt out of the parole offices, down the street to a tiny café, where Matt ordered a pot of coffee and Gerard picked out an orange poppyseed muffin. Matt took a few sips of the coffee before saying, "I grew up in Texas, near El Paso. It was a shitty area."

"I know the feeling."

"Yeah, well. I was all but born into one of the gangs. My dad had been in it in his time, I had two brothers in it, every kid on my street had one or more older siblings in it. It was just something you did."

"Okay," Gerard said. Elena had kept them pretty well out of those things, but Gerard knew that was the only reason he and Mikey hadn't ended up in a gang by pure coincidence of birth location.

"There was an initiation, right? And my year, me and this other boy were sent out to frighten this local girl who'd gotten into a regional beauty queen pageant. She was white, you know? So we've got this plan, and it's just, I mean, it's mostly just kids stuff. Not all, but nobody walks away too fucked up. Only the other kid, he had some plans I didn't know about. And the thing--I mean, I'd grown up with him my entire life, so I kept thinking 'this can't be happening, this can't fucking be happening' only it was, and by the time I fucking got it together and pulled him off her, she was in pretty bad shape.

"I was sixteen at time, but she was pretty rich, and, like I said, white, and I got charged as an adult, accessory to rape and attempted murder. I spent three years in maximum security."

Gerard pushed the muffin away from himself. He was pretty sure he was going to puke. "At _sixteen_?"

"It wasn't-- I mean, I had people I knew in there, and they protected me for the most part and one of the older ones pushed me into finishing high school and even starting college. Juvie would have been better, and there were some pretty horrific moments, but Gee, I'd-- I'd listened to that girl scream. I'd _listened_. I think if they hadn't put me away like that? I'd've gone crazy from the guilt."

Slowly, Gerard said, "Okay."

"Anyway, when I got out, the parole officer I was assigned was from my neighborhood, and he was a real firestarter, tended to get really pissed off when skin color got in the way of justice, so he worked his ass off to get the charge wiped from my record, make it look like a juvenile ruling. He finally managed about two years after I got out, right as I was nearing completion of college. And I told him that I wanted to do that kind of thing for other kids who didn't have anyone on their side, you know? So he worked to help me get a job and one thing led to another and eventually I came here half for the job, half because it was just healthier for me to get out of that place."

Gerard nodded. "I'm still not sure what this has to do with Jon."

"I'm just pretty sure that if I say, 'I like you Jon Walker,' sooner or later I'm going to have to say to him, 'oh, by they way, I kind of sort of watched a girl get raped and beaten when I was sixteen and then spent some time trading my ass for safety'. That's really not the kind of thing that inspires a guy who works for about a half of what he's worth because he believes project kids should have community, too."

"Yeah, that doesn't sound like anyone I know," Gerard said dryly.

"It's not the same. Mine's a karma thing."

"How many people have you helped set up in a way so that they don't show any signs of relapsing and going to prison?"

"Off the top of my head?"

"Yes."

"Six, that I can think of."

"In how many years?"

"Three."

"So, two a year?"

"Out of easily a few hundred every year."

"Well, me and Mikey were two of those, so excuse me if I don't give a flying fuck."

Matt said, "Yeah, I guess there's that."

"You should-- You believe he's a good guy, that's why you like him. You should give him a chance."

"You just want to stop the unrequited love dance he's got going on with your brother."

"I'm not denying that's an appealing prospect," Gerard said, and set the Werther's down on the desk.

"What are those?"

"Werther's Originals."

"Yeah, I am actually literate."

"They're Jon's favorite."

"How do you know?"

"He keeps them in his pocket all the time."

"Really?"

"You're kind of unobservant for a guy who's pretty hung up on him."

"I'm usually paying attention to other things."

Gerard snickered, and pushed the bag across the desk. "A chance."

Matt didn't say anything, but he took the bag.

 

*

_Geeway,_

_Mikey would like a dog. ~~Dogs give unconditional~~ He likes cuddling things._

_It's good to see someone on that side of the wall is taking my advice. Did you get Matt to throw some candy at Jon's window? Leave them under his pillow? Drop them in his coffee in the morning? All of these are excellent ways for grown men to pull each other's pigtails._

_Speaking of, Mikey said he thinks the Alex kid who works at the kitchen has a thing for Tommy. You think? If so, do a background check, would you? I asked Mikey, too, and I'll ask Bob. I figure you'll all come at it from such different directions, he won't be left hiding anything. My plans for world domination also involve the three of you, but we'll get to that another time._

_You know what to do for me, re: Mikey. A lot._

_Frank_


End file.
